With a major part in the most anticipated film of the decade, George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, repeated comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and the drool of a thousand critics at her feet, Natalie Portman has emerged as one of the most promising actresses of her generation. Born in Jerusalem on June 9, 1981 to an artist mother and doctor father, Portman move to New York when she was three. Raised on Long Island, she was discovered by a modeling agent who signed her on the spot. Her modeling stint led to an audition for Luc Besson's upcoming film Leon (or The Professional, as it was called in the United States). Due to her age (she was 12 when the film was cast), Portman was initially turned down for the lead role of Mathilda, a girl who asks a hit man Jean Reno to train her as an assassin to avenge her brother's death and falls in love with him in the process. However, she ultimately won the part, and her 1994 film debut won her positive notices. In interviews, Portman allowed that making her first film in the toughest sections of Spanish Harlem was frightening -- but not quite so frightening, she claimed, as going back to school once shooting wrapped. Portman then took on the role of Al Pacino's step-daughter in another demanding film, Michael Mann's Heat (1995). She followed this up with lighter fare when she played Jack Nicholson's daughter in Mars Attacks! (1996). Despite a triumph of casting (the ensemble also included Glenn Close, Annette Bening and Rod Steiger) and the direction of the dependably original Tim Burton, the film met with critical and financial slaughter. Portman emerged relatively unscathed, going on the same year to make Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You. The film met with a decidedly happier fate among critics and filmgoers than her previous venture, and Portman continued to ride high with the success of her third film of 1996, Beautiful Girls. For her performance as Marty, the precocious teen who nearly steals a much older Timothy Hutton away from his fiancée, Portman received adulation from a host of critics, some of whom stated that she was the best part of the whole movie. After turning down title roles in both Lolita and Romeo + Juliet, Portman took on another title role with her 1997 Broadway debut in The Diary of Anne Frank. She stayed with the show until May of 1998, during which time she received positive notices for her performance. After lending her voice to The Prince of Egypt (1998), Portman took on her most talked-about role to date, that of Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace, (1999). Despite very mixed reviews, the film went into box office hyperdrive, further propelling Portman towards her status as a rapidly emerging talent for the new millennium.